Chap. 235 Lefsa's Story

Chap. 235 Lefsa's story

Dried flakes of blood and swathes of his hair fell like dust from his head. He resisted the urge to scratch his scalp.

"Shards, it's good to get out of the bandages, my scalp itched enough to drive me mad!"

"No doubt, K'ndar. You've not washed your head in two days," the Master Healer said.

"True. How long before I can? Is the wound still open?"

"Not to worry, K'ndar, you can wash your head now, as long as you don't disturb the wound. It's closed up and healing quite nicely." She had clipped away more of his hair to clear the wound site.

"But I'll need stitches?"

The Healer laughed. "Apparently not. Amazing, actually."

"Really?"

"Really. You were an experiment and I suppose I should have asked your permission-but it was late, things were crazy, I just wanted to staunch the blood and get you bandaged. I sealed the wound with a combination of a salve, an antibiotic phage...and glue."

"Glue? Glue?"

"Yes. It's the latest stuff that's come out the research labs. It has anesthetic qualities as well as an amazing ability to seal out air when it's wet. There's a creature on Pern, called a ..."

"Smanda..."

She stopped, surprised.

"You know about smandas?"

He grinned. "Not to boast, but-I discovered them. The hard way, mind you, see the scars on my fire lizard's legs? That came from smandas saliva," he said.

"Oh. YOU'RE the one who brought them in!" she cried.

"Yes, ma'am. And the R & D labs are apparently doing all sorts of things with 'smanda glue'. I never thought of it being used to close a wound!"

"Beats a needle thorn and sutures, by a long shot," she said. "Anyway, go ahead, give your head a good cleaning tonight, but do be careful. The swelling has gone down almost to normal and unless you scrub hard, I don't think the wound will open up. If it does...back into bandages you go."

K'ndar shivered. "I'll be careful. The bandages were worse than the wound itself. I couldn't sleep with this big round head."

She laughed. "That's good to know. It means the smanda glue is working as a pain killer as promised. Normally head wounds like yours take a while to heal and, I've been told, to hurt for longer."

"Do I look strange?" K'ndar said, not really worried, but liking to hear the woman's laugh.

She stepped back to admire her work. "Well," she said, "If you hold your head sort of tilted upwards and to the right, the big bald spot on the back of your head won't be so noticeable. After your hair grows in, you won't even be able to see the scar."

"I'm not worried about scars, Mum used to say that girls think boys with scars look sexy," K'ndar said, and then, anxiously, "Am I cleared to fly?"

The Master Healer smiled and nodded.

_______________________________________________________________________

He was in his office when Lefsa came in. Her arms were full of notebooks, measuring equipment, and a camera. Her grin was wrapped two times around her head. He'd never seen her happier.

"K'ndar! I've got all sorts of data from that amazing jaw, do you know, I think...what in the world happened to your head?" she stopped, shocked.

He turned in his chair to look at her.

"Somebody hit me from behind. Two nights ago. I just had the bandages removed this morning. I had to wash my head, it itched so bad from the blood. Does it look bad?"

Her face was frozen.

"Lefsa?"

Her face crumpled and she began to cry.

"What? What did I say? Here, give me that stuff," he said, jumping up to keep her from dropping the camera.

She allowed him to take her burden, and then her tears really came.

I never know how to deal with someone who's crying, he thought, helplessly.

"Here, sit down," he said, "What's wrong? Did I say something wrong again?"

She sat down, blinded by her tears. She shook her head and waved her hands as a negative. After several sobs, she mastered her tears and wiped them from her cheeks with trembling hands.

"Lefsa, I'm sorry, did I say.."

She hiccuped. "No, no, it's okay, K'ndar, it's just...oh, I am so sorry, K'ndar. I am so sorry."

She's saying sorry to me? What in the world!

"Please, don't apologize, I have no idea what I've done, please. Or you've done, why are you apologizing?"

She heaved a big sigh and stood up.

"You have done absolutely nothing wrong, K'ndar. Now I understand everything."

He was confused and growing exasperated.

"Well I DON'T, please?"

"You were clobbered by Raimon. Right? Isn't that what you learned at Security?"

"You know him? How did you know I talked to Security?Yes, it was a man named Raimon. How do you know this?"

She bit her lip.

"Security told me what he did to you. He..Raimon was my partner."

Dumbfounded, all K'ndar could say was "Oh."

She got up and began to pace, then stopped.

"I thought he'd left a month ago, right after I started training you. We'd had a huge fight.

It wasn't our first fight, no sir. This started before you were hired. Two months ago, he finally pissed off his supervisor. He couldn't bully or fool her. She finally had enough and said, 'you're done here, you're fired. Sign out NOW.' But he didn't.

He told ME that he had quit, and that we were going to move to High Reaches Hold, where he grew up. I didn't want to go. I hate High Reaches Hold, it's always so cold there. I didn't have to go. We weren't married, after all. He was always watching me, wanting to know who I talked to, where I went, why didn't I come home immediately. I couldn't even have a glass of wine with the people I worked with. I'd had enough. So I refused. I told him he could leave any time he wanted but I was staying. He said he would make it so that I HAD to leave.

He told Raylan we were leaving, that it was my idea to leave Landing because I was pregnant. I wasn't pregnant. I didn't learn what he'd told Raylan until I asked him why I was losing my job in Biology? I'd done good work. Raylan told me why, and then said, if I wanted to stay, he'd have to move me because he'd already started the process of hiring a new biologist. He said, "Do you want to take a stab at our new line in Taxonomy?" Oh, YES! Which I just love, K'ndar. It's perfect for me.

When I got home, I told Raimon I didn't appreciate him lying and that I was staying here. And he could leave any time. But Raimon didn't leave. He just sat around our quarters, sitting on his arse while I was at work. And every moment at home, he's blaming me for all his troubles. Then you were hired, and I started training you.

Things got really bad, then. Every day, he was fuming, waiting by the door and demanding I account for every word I had with you, what did you do, what did I do. It made my life pure misery, and it had already been bad, for a long time.

The day we went flying? I hadn't told him I was going to do that. When I came into our quarters I was still giddy from flying, it was so much fun, and I hadn't laughed like that in a long time. He blew up. He accused me of being so happy because you and I had sex. He grabbed me by the arms and bent them and said, "I will make you sorry you were ever born. And then I'll make K'ndar even sorrier."

"I...I never.." K'ndar stammered, appalled.

"I know, K'ndar, you've been a perfect gentleman from the moment we met, but he wouldn't believe me. He never believed me," she sighed, mournfully.

K'ndar shook his head.

"Did he...hurt you?"

She nodded. She looked at her arms. The bruises had faded. The ones on her heart had not.

"What did you do? Did he stop?"

"Yes. But only because, luckily, I'd brought my datalink home, like usual. This time I had left it on, and when he grabbed me and said that, I yelled "Security! Help!"

"He hit me and then he ran out of our quarters, and I've not seen him since. I assumed he'd left for High Reaches. But now I know I was wrong."

She looked at him with her soul in her eyes.

"I should have said something, K'ndar. Especially when he told me he knew what you looked like, where you lived-he'd spied on you. I should have told you he hated you."

That unnerved him. "I never..I'd never seen him in my life. I had no idea who he was."

Siskin chipped, softly. Thank the stars for you, my little blue, were it not for you and Raventh, I'd be dead.

"Why, um, why didn't you leave him?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "Shaffing hormones....I was only 17 when he 'chose' me. I loved him, because he was so self assured, so confident. I believed him when he said he loved me. He said I was everything he wanted in a woman. But I wasn't, really. I was nothing but a drudge to him, not much more than a draft horse, just someone to control. He was smooth, at first. I didn't notice the noose around my neck getting tighter, little by little, every day." She sighed and looked at the ceiling, her regret overwhelming.

"When I screamed for Security, he ran out. Security got my story, looked at my arms, and then they moved me..that night! into a small dorm and said, don't return to your quarters without one of us. I had time to pack a bag of my stuff and that's when I found he'd taken every mark we had.

They said they'd watch for him, but no one had seen a hair of him, so we all started to relax. I believed he'd gone to High Reaches Hold.

But now I know that he stuck around, I think he was sleeping in empty buildings, ones not cleaned and renovated yet, biding his time. I think he'd had it all planned out."

"I'm...I don't know what to say," he said.

"You don't have to, except to say, if you can, that you forgive me."

"Forgive YOU? For what? For your arsehole of a partner trying to break my head?"

"For not telling you. For not warning you. But I had no idea he'd go so far as to attack and try to kill you. I didn't think him capable of that."

K'ndar shook his head again. Part of his mind rejoiced in that it didn't hurt.

He was torn. He felt an odd sense of responsibility, feeling as if by hearing her story he was expected to fix it, somehow. And how did you fix something like this? But..he knew she needed to let it out, if only to allow her to start healing. How could he say I don't want to hear it to a friend? You don't.

"Lefsa, you don't need my forgiveness, you haven't done anything but been my friend. You didn't attack me. I'm just sorry that you were hurt, and were so miserable."

She sighed again. Then from somewhere inside, she managed a smile.

"Okay. Thank you for understanding. I'm so sorry he hurt you, K'ndar," she said.

He shrugged.

"It's okay, Lefsa. I don't blame you. And I have to tell you, I hurt him as much if not worse. I almost broke his jaw. He's got a mouthfull of broken teeth. I DEFINITELY broke his nose. And Siskin, here, he-well, one, Siskin won't ever let him near me again, and two, he almost took out his eyes."

Siskin chittered, his neck arched in pride.

"Now that I know he hurt you, I'm sorry I didn't break his jaw. Or Siskin didn't take out his eyes, but then...he'd probably been forced to go back with you. I'm assuming, mind you, it's none of my business, but please, tell me you're not going to take him back?"

"Are you joking? I never want to see him again. He broke my heart and my spirit, but I'm recovering, K'ndar. It's been a long nightmare, but it's over. He doesn't dare come back. You know that a petitioner had a horse stolen? I think he took it. I think he'd planned on hanging around until Landing was full of people from all over Pern, so he could kill you, one of the guests would get the blame, and he'd escape with them as they left."